


Everything Hits at Once

by afrocurl



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Erik Has Feelings, Father-Son Relationship, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, M/M, POV Outsider, Protective Erik, Teen Angst, Teenage Drama, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-02 22:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5265677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David's relationship with Charles is tenuous at best, but coming to watch the launch of Cerebro can't be a good idea. Can it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything Hits at Once

**Author's Note:**

  * For [endingthemes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/endingthemes/gifts).



> Endings, this is not the AU you were looking for from this prompt, but I hope you like it all the same.

_I will not talk to Charles today. I will not talk to Charles today._ It repeats over and over again, so loud that David is sure Charles can hear it, except he does not care, and if everything today is meant to go right, Charles _won’t_ be able to hear him. The lobby is teeming with people all waiting to see Charles Xavier’s new invention - the invention that will support and ease all mutant lives.

That’s a small mercy in David’s mind right now. One of only a few he has. Why his life is so complicated, he’s still not sure, but it usually rests at the hands of Mom and/or Charles. 

Hank paid for this semester because Charles was too busy with Cerebro. What a stupid name Cerebro is. Why name a device that will limit or modify power after the brain? Power and the brain go hand in hand, David knows from his intro to neuroscience class. Why would anyone want to change what they are? David never knew what life could be like without his telepathy, and he has read the same is true of Charles. The whole project seems ill-suited to Charles and Erik, who are strongly rooted in what their mutations can do. Or so he hears from Hank on and off.

David distracts himself from walking down a line of thought that ends with him even more upset at Charles than he already is. He hasn’t told anyone that he would be here at all. Invitation notwithstanding, David really wants nothing to do with the man who denied he was David’s father for years. 

David rarely wants to acknowledge what Charles is to him, even if it’s a near impossible feat to avoid. Reading _Time_ , David knows what Charles had said about his paternity test, as well as everything implicit in the idea that Mom was a whore - or worse - a sycophant who wants to ride the wave of Charles’ success rather than work. David things Mom might just be both; she always begged Charles for money, he remembers, but it didn’t make their lives any better with all the other men who flittered in and out of their worldview.

The room is still too crowded, testing the boundaries of David’s own expanding powers. He wants to leave, not the least because he wants to avoid Charles at all costs.

Because of course Charles was too busy with Cerebro. Even Erik is too busy with Cerebro to have time to talk.

Just as David is prepared to walk out, a hand cups his shoulder. African-American man, strong features. Typical of someone Charles wants to keep around; Charles does value those who look good around him. “David, I’m Darwin and Erik asked me to find you and bring you back to Charles’ dressing room. He wants to talk to you.”

“Tell him you didn’t see me. I’m leaving.” Curiosity only does so much, and now that he’s here, David wants to be gone and avoid any conversation.

David starts to turn away, but is caught in Darwin’s strong grip. “Useful way to keep you here. He wants to talk to you.”

“And I don’t want to talk to him. I never have.”

“That’s not what he said. He loved that time you wanted to avoid Gabby - at the last launch. Talks about it all the time.”

“You’re a horrible liar, and I can tell.” David mimes his telepathic powers like he knows Charles does all the time.

“And now I know you’re full of shit. I’m impossible to read; handy part of my mutation.”

David hums, but still tries to turn away. “He wants to talk to you. Erik said so. And Erik doesn’t lie when it comes to you.”

If only Darwin hadn’t used Erik’s name. Erik is a weak spot. Always has been.

Erik has always been unusually nice for a man who’s at Charles’ side almost every hour of every day. In all the years that David has known Erik, there’s a large part of him that doesn’t understand why Erik’s stayed.

Is it that he’s in love with Charles? Would that even make sense when Erik is faced with most of Charles’ ire on a daily basis? But if not that, what is it? Charles is impossible to like because he thinks he knows what’s best and tells you that always. No matter what.

He doesn’t want to think about Charles and Erik like that, though. He doesn’t want to think about Charles at all. Except that he’s about to watch dear ol’ dad launch a device that could change the lives of all mutants.

David sighs. This internal dialogue has to stop if he doesn’t want to start and end a conversation with Charles quickly. “Fine. Take me to his room.”

Darwin turns around quickly, dropping his near death grip on David’s shoulder and they make their way from the front of the lobby through the back of the auditorium and all the pandemonium typical of any Xavier launch.

There are scores of people around, slowly taxing David’s shields. Maybe Charles was onto something after all.

Not that David would ever admit that. Never.

But David is trying to think of anything but Charles, which of course means that he runs into Erik first.

“I thought you’d get back here eventually,” Erik says, before looking down at the clipboard and the scores of things he probably should be doing.

“Charles and his ways,” is David’s reply, because he can’t think of anything else to say.

“Well, yes, I know Charles’ ways. But that’s not why he wants you here. He has something he wants to tell you.”

“Doesn’t he always? I’m just another cog in the wheel of the greatest wheel that is Xavier Corporation.”

“And also the best thing that happened to Charles. No matter what he says in the press.”

David scoffs, his suspicions confirmed.“So you’re sleeping with him. I can tell. Want me to hold hands with Charles in front of the media and give him more sales of Cerebro?”

“We’d never do that.” Erik’s got a surprised look on a his face as if David has just kicked a puppy. Or worse, one of Erik’s three cats.

“Bullshit. He always wants something from me.” David let his anger start to flow out of him, letting it bleed into the room and the surrounding hallways. He doesn’t care if anyone else at this launch is upset when Charles takes the stage. Better yet, they can be upset and it will tank all of Charles’ sales. Serves him right.

“You mean, something other than your affection and love?” Erik’s clearly thinking that Charles does love David, not that David’s seen the outward appearance of that in his entire life.

“I’d give him those if I ever got them in return. So I think we’re done here. I’ll see myself out. This is just like every other time I’ve been here.”

“Stay,” Erik says, “For me. Just hear him out. I know he has something to say to you that you can’t hear anywhere else.”

“Fine. But if it’s the same old shit, I’m out of here.”

“It won’t be. You’ll see,” Erik says, and as if on cue, Charles comes into the room.

Only something’s different. Charles isn’t walking. He’s wheeling himself into the room. In all the years that Charles has been on television, he walks. He talks on late night shows and strides in with confidence before sitting down. This - Charles in a wheelchair - can’t be true. Or maybe Charles’ powers are so great as to fool everyone. Even other telepaths.

But isn’t that just like Charles? To play everyone in a long con to what end? David now wants to know why - or else he’s been part of a lie so big it won’t untangle in on public appearance.

“You want my sympathy now? After you called my mom a whore in _Time_ when I was barely born? When you told me that I was better off without her when she was at my side? You want sympathy for all of your grievances? How long have you been lying about this? How long have I had to live more lies because of you? Well, FUCK YOU! Fuck your high horse and your superior ways!”

David turns around and starts to leave, only he’s stuck in place. Fuckin’ Erik Lehnsherr and his magnetic fields.

“Let me go,” David grits out. “I won’t feel sorry for him.”

“I don’t want your sympathy,” Charles says. “I wanted to show you. So you could see me. The real me.”

David wants to look anywhere else but at Charles, only he can’t. For the first time in his life, he can’t avoid Charles.

“This is who he is now, David. This is why Cerebro will change the world. Because it can do anything, not just dampen powers. The circlet can adapt them; make them stronger and last longer or keep dangerous power safely in control. It will keep us safe, both from ourselves and from everyone else who wants to hurt mutants just because we’re different.” Erik’s got a hitch in his throat and a look in his eyes that say he loves Charles. Because no one else has, and now no one else will want to. They’re so perfect, it’s almost sickening.

“So you want the world to see you in this chair and never use Cerebro or his powers that way again? Demeaning. And just like you. Deny what you are and what you do in the name of science. You’re a coward.”

“And what would you know about me?” Charles asks, calm and sure.

“I know you would rather deny I’m your kid, and that you’d rather make yourself appear less threatening when the world knows you’re the most powerful telepath. And you want to hide yourself away now with the one other person on Earth who’d agree with you on eighty percent of life’s trials.

“Erik’s the only person you’d ever want to love so just stop trying with me and let me go. Hank can cover my tuition at Harvard and you won’t have to admit you have a son. You’ve hid me long enough.”

“I never wanted to hide you,” Charles says through a hitch in his breath. This is the first time David has ever seen Charles as anything other than collected or yelling wildly. Something in the middle is novel. And unexpected.

“Well, you have and you can’t fix it now. Just go about what you’ve done before and I’ll keep ignoring your DNA.”

“You don’t have to do this,” and now that’s Erik’s voice. He has always wanted David to like Charles. Or at least Xavier Corporation. It won’t be enough.

“I have to do something for me. Just this once. You both want to coddle me in something to make me like you both. I’m too much like Mom for that and it’s time you both realize that.”

With that, David storms out of the room, and pays no attention to any of the eyes of XC workers who have overheard the entire rout.

Whatever. David doesn’t need XC. Or Cerebro. Anything from Charles has already been tainted.

-

David wants to hate Cerebro. He always will, but in the weeks following the launch of the circlet device, it’s impossible to avoid.

Harvard Yard now sports dozens on the heads of students and staff at any given time. Charles’ name is whispered around almost incessantly. Thoughts are even worse. But David won’t buy one. He won’t give Charles that satisfaction.

Erik’s image is all across the news, David knows. XC’s Head of Marketing tells any news anchor of Cerebro’s benefits, even wears one himself to avoid tripping up and complicating telecommunication systems for a few as a show of how it can make things easier for those just manifesting. Erik tries to explain how much this would have made his teen years less chaotic and less dangerous for his family. But now, the world won’t have to see powers out of control and with increased educational efforts, children can ease their ways into mutations.

Erik’s even talking about what a brave man Charles is to let the world finally see the real him. 

David wants to be sick.

He wants everything with Charles and Erik to force itself into a black hole.

But there’s one shining example.

“Charles and I are proud of the XC work, and we’re proud that we’ve done it together. After so many years, we’re proud to tell the world just one more thing.”

There’s a very pregnant pause from the television, and David turns away before he hears Erik say, “Charles and I are thrilled to announce we’ve recently gotten married.”

David doesn’t trust his emotions, so he just walks away.

He’ll walk away from everything the two of them have touched, because it’s safer than any alternative.

**Author's Note:**

> To all those who helped get this into shape, thank you!
> 
> Title from a Spoon song.


End file.
